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New regs for Monday: Train safety, 9/11 insurance, war insurance

Monday's edition of the Federal Register contains new rules for train emergency evacuations, 9/11 health insurance, and war risk insurance for ships.

Here's what is happening:

Train safety: The Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) is moving forward with a new rule that would make sure passengers with disabilities are safely evacuated from passenger trains during emergency situations.

The FRA's General Passenger Safety Task Force announced the rule Friday, along with other changes to its emergency preparedness plan, including training for railroad personnel who communicate and coordinate with first responders during emergency situations.

The rules, which were originally proposed in June 2012, goes into effect on July 29.

9/11 insurance: The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has decided not to add kidney damage to a list of medical conditions covered under the World Trade Center Health Program.

The World Trade Center Health Program helps pay for the medical bills of emergency responders and other people who survived the 9/11 terrorist attacks, but now live with diseases that they received from breathing in the dust cloud that was formed as the buildings collapsed. Diseases such as cancer have been added to the list.

But the CDC announced Friday that there is not enough evidence to support adding kidney disease to the list.

War risk insurance: The Maritime Administration is reviewing an insurance program it offers to the owners of ships that sail around the world to conduct business that protects against acts of war against the vessel.

War risk insurance generally protects the owners of ships by covering damage to due to invasion, insurrection, rebellion and hijacking, among other things.

If a ship owner cannot get a private insurance policy the Maritime Administration, a division of the Transportation Department, can offer such policies. These polices generally cover damage to the ship, as well as people and items inside the ship.

But the Maritime Administration is currently reviewing the insurance program to determine whether it needs to be revised or scrapped. Congress has given the agency the authority to offer such insurance policies through 2020.

"The program is mutually-beneficial to the United States and to the ship owner in that it assures continued flow of essential U.S. trade and protection of the ship owner from loss by risks of war," the agency wrote.

Prior notice: The Food and Drug Administration is releasing a draft guidance for the food industry.

The guidance addresses questions from the industry about how to comply with prior notice requirements that compel the importer to name any and all countries to which a product has been denied entry.

This updates the last draft guidance filed in May 2004.

Closed captioning: The Federal Communications Commission is pushing a new round of closed-captioning rules, in its latest in a series of attempts to make sure people who are deaf and hard-of-hearing have access to television broadcasts.

The new rules would establish closed captioning quality standards for pre-recorded, live, and near-live programming.

Influenza: The Department of Health and Human Services is considering a rule that would establish countermeasures for pandemic influenza.

The proposed rule would establish an injury compensation program for people who affected by certain pandemic strands of influenza.